Moving back - what to cancel?

[pomsoutofoz]

Hello, i went to australia to to activate my PR and I applied for medicare, driving license, tax file number and opened a bank account. However things have changed in the meantime and I am thinking of moving back but I am still leaving option of returning to australia opened until visa expires. So can I not cancel my medicare, driving license and tax file number ? I know the bank account I might need to close it though just in case i do not return to australia

[Quoll]

If there's a chance you may be returning I'd leave them. Your TFN won't change, your licence will expire on your next 0 or 5 birthday (if your state is anything like ACT and you can just let it lapse then - renewing from o/s is tricky but do-able if you're still accessing the same address), Medicare card will be current for a while. Bank - yeah probably close account, it'll be easy enough to open a new one.

[Guest]

No need to cancel any of those - if your bank account isn't fee-bearing I'd keep that too, it might even help with credit references if you do move back. I've been back a year and still have a Westpac account - changed it to my UK address, run in on-line and they even accept UK mobile numbers (needed for SMS to authorise payments), all very easy.

 

If you have worked you may want to keep the account open to receive a tax refund (that's why we did) - I'm sure the tax office would pay it into a UK account but I preferred to choose the exchange rate I moved it across at as it was quite a large sum.

 

If you have private health care, DO NOT cancel it - suspend it, it costs you nothing but it makes sure that you do not get stung for 'lifetime health cover loading' if you return. In fact daft as it sounds if you are over 40 or likely to be if you return and haven't taken out private health care do it now! You can suspend it just before you leave. You have a year from when you first enter Australia otherwise you have to pay it for 10 years - we learnt the hard way